Mice destroy NSW family home as plague continues

A plague of mice has reduced a rural NSW home to rubble after the vermin sparked a fire that left a family with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

A family living in rural NSW who thought the worst of the mice plague was over have been dealt a devastating blow after the vermin saw their house reduced to rubble.

For more than six months, eastern parts of rural and regional Australia have been dealing with a relentless mice plague.

The plague has seen schools, homes and hospitals overrun, farmers lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in crops and entire towns suffocated by the pungent smell left by the rodents.

The emotional, economic and mental toll of the situation has been profound, with a family living near the Narrabri Shire, in NSW’s north west, recently left homeless as a result of the rodents.

When aged care nurse Rebekah Ward arrived back to house in Gwabegar on Friday she was met with the horrific sight of her home engulfed in flames.

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Rebekah Ward lost everything except the clothes on her back after her home in Gwabegar caught fire.

Police believe the blaze was sparked after mice chewed through electrical wires.

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Thankfully her three sons, John, 12, Charlie, 9, and Oliver, 7, were unharmed and were standing in the front yard when she arrived home.

Quick thinking from neighbour Mark Adams meant the family pug, Little Miss, and cat, Lexie, were also saved from the blaze, Ms Ward told The Daily Telegraph.

Unfortunately, everything else inside the home was lost.

“By the time I arrived back at our home it was completely on fire,” Ms Ward told the publication.

“The policewoman there said that she had seen mice flying out of the roof trying to get away from the flames.”

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Rebekah Ward with her three sons John, 12, Charlie, 9 and Oliver, 7. Picture: David Swift

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Police believe the fire was caused by mice living in the roof and walls eating through electrical wires, sparking the destructive blaze.

A GoFundMe page has been set up for the family by friend Zoe Mabey, who confirmed mice were to blame for the fire.

“The police are looking into the cause and are fairly certain that the mice plague in NSW caused this awful tragedy … eating through the electrical wires. Very very sad,” she wrote on Facebook.

In the description on the fundraiser, which has raised more than $4300, Ms Mabey recounted the horrifying moment Ms Ward told her what had happened.

“Yesterday I received the saddest phone call … A phone call that I wish no person ever had to make. My best friend Rebekah was in tears and trying to explain to me what happened,” she wrote.

“Through the distress I made out ‘My house is burning down to the ground!’ The saddest news ever.”

The family home before the blaze.

Parts of the home were completely burnt to the ground.

She said the three boys were on their way to football training with their dad James when the fire started.

“They have lost absolutely everything. Their whole world. The boys’ toys, books, the whole family’s clothes, personal items, linen, toiletries, photos, non replaceable heirlooms, furniture, memories and the list goes on and on,” Ms Mabey said.

“The main thing – the 5 of them are alive and still here, but literally only have the clothes they have on their back left! If you can spare anything, even $5 – it will be greatly appreciated and so helpful in rebuilding their lives.”

Thousands impacted by ongoing plague

Over the past few months, social media has been flooded with pictures and videos showing the true extent of the plague.

Some farmers lost their entire summer crops to the rodents and others have spent as much as $150,000 on bait to kill the mice.

Preliminary results from a survey of some 1100 rural residents showed nearly all had been forced to bait for mice.

Nearly one-third of respondents had spent between $20,000 and $150,000 on baiting, while some had forked out more than that.

Milawa, about 20 kilometres from Warren, where residents said they were ‘suffering with no end in sight here’ due to the plague. Picture: Supplied

Farmer Ben Storer estimated over a billion mice have passed through his property, taking out football fields’ worth of crops as they go.

“We had (mice) bad in the 1980s once and we’ve had outbreaks of them here and there, but nothing this bad,” Mr Storer told The Daily Telegraph.

“To then lose a whole sorghum crop and some 1000 roles of hay … you could easily factor in a couple of hundred thousand dollars for the sorghum (grain), and then, with the value of hay during the drought, you could probably say it was worth the same.”

Apart from the economic cost of the plague, the smell has also been a horrific factor many rural residents have been forced to live with.

“The smell is just atrocious,” Lisa Minogue, 48, who lives on a rural property near Barmedman, NSW, told NCA NewsWire.

“Mice have two smells: when they’re still alive, it’s a strange, dirty smell. But then you have the smell when they’re dead and decaying which is even worse.”

Warren farmer Ben Storer said they were regularly pulling up to '300 mice a night' out of their swimming pool during the plague.

$50m assistance package to help impacted communities

Earlier this month the NSW Government announced a $50 million assistance package for farmers, households and small businesses that have been impacted by the mice plague.

Free baiting, through free-of-charge grain treatment, will be made available to primary producers, while affected rural and town households and small businesses will be able to apply for rebates to help them meet the cost of purchasing mouse baits.

The package will allow households to apply for rebates of up to $500 and $1000 for small businesses.

Minister for Agriculture Adam Marshall said farmers would be able to have their grain treated free of charge to protect their hard-sown crops from vermin.

“We’re making this as easy for farmers as we possibly can. No tedious rebate forms to fill out, just bring your grain to have the experts treat it free of charge,” he said.

“Free bait is better than any rebate for our farmers, who we continue to stand behind post drought, bushfires and floods.”

In addition to free grain treatment and expert workshops, the NSW Department of Primary Industries will also launch an unprecedented body of research to identify and potentially develop future tools to combat mice plagues, including biological controls.